Amid the recent India-Pakistan tensions following the Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam terror attack, an old video of actor Irrfan has re-surfaced online. In the video, Irrfan was asked by a Pakistani journalist if he would ever visit Pakistan.
The prolific actor, who was known as a man of a few words, gave a short and impactful reply to the query, winning hearts on the Internet.
In the viral video, the journalist asks Irrfan, "Hello Irrfan bhai, you have a great following in Pakistan. I wish you can sometime come to Pakistan. It'll be a great pleasure."
Cutting the journalist, Irrfan says with a straight face, "Main aah toh jaaunga, wapas aaunga ki nahi? (I will visit Pakistan, but will I be able to come back?)"
The audience burst into laughter.
Take a look:
Irrfan's old video has gone viral at a time when India has banned Pakistani artists from performing in India and removed all Pakistani-origin content from the Internet in India.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor, India asked OTT giants to remove Pakistani-origin content from their respective platforms.
Last week, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory asking streaming platforms in India to remove films, TV shows, web series, podcasts and songs originated in Pakistan.
"In the interest of national security, all OTT platforms, media streaming platforms and intermediaries operating in India are advised to discontinue the web series, films, songs, podcasts and other streaming media content, whether made available on a subscription based model or otherwise, having its origins in Pakistan with immediate effect," the advisory stated.
Pakistani artists like Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Mawra Hocane's images have also been removed from their Bollywood film songs on music apps.
Popular music platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music have already removed Fawad Khan's face from the posters of Kapoor & Sons, and that of Mahira Khan from Raees.
The Raees album, which earlier featured Shah Rukh Khan and Mahira Khan, now features Shah Rukh alone.
Meanwhile, the song Buddhu Sa Mann, featuring Fawad Khan alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt, is currently inaccessible on YouTube in India, with a message stating "video unavailable."
Meanwhile, in an interview with The Lallantop last year, actor Shashank Arora revealed an interesting anecdote from the set of the film, The Song of Scorpions. The film starred Irrfan in the lead role, along with Iranian actress Golshifeth Farahani, and Shashank Arora.
During the shoot of the film, said Arora, Irrfan would ask him to ride with him to the India-Pakistan border, "to fly a kite". Irrfan had joked that he would see if anyone would try to "shoot the kite down" on the border.
In the past, Irrfan has worked with Pakistani actress Saba Qamar in the film Hindi Medium (2017). Irrfan died on April 29, 2020.